Midterm Qs Flashcards
What 5 traits make a profession?
- Work requires sophisticated skills and use of judgement/discretion (non-routine)
- Requires extensive formal education
- Special societies or organizations made up of members of the profession regulate it
- Results in public good
- Accountability
What goes into trust?
Honesty and Reliability
How is trust different with a learned professional?
Includes competency
How is competency judged?
Education, experience, past decisions, tasks they are able to perform, how up to date their knowledge is, standards they work by, accountability
How is trustworthiness developed?
- Media
- Personal Experiences
- Others experiences
What is a fiduciary duty?
Special relationship of trust recognized in law that applies to professionals. It is a legal concept between someone offering their expertise and someone relying on that expertise. Includes duty of care and loyalty to client.
What 2 items are included in the social contract between professionals and the public?
- Rights (Autonomy, respect, compensation)
- Responsibility (Act in the public’s best interests, be honest and trustworthy)
What is utilitarianism?
The most ethical action is the one that is the most beneficial choice for all affected parties
What is the difference between act and rule utilitarianism?
Act: focussed on individual actions over general rules, a persons act is right if it produces the most good. Rules should be broken when it produces the most good
Rule: moral rules are fundamental, and adhering to these will lead to the most good
What are rights ethics (Locke)?
Ethical theory that humans have the right to life, liberty, and property. People have these rights and have a duty to respect the rights of others.
What are rights ethics (Meldon)?
Ethics centred around liberty and rights based on a sense of community. Moral “rights” mean capacity to show concern for others, and everyone has a right to community support.
What are duty ethics (Kant)?
Moral duties are fundamental, and ethical actions can be written down as a list of duties. Ethical actions express respect for individuals
What are duty ethics (Rawls)?
The duties we should follow are what a rational person would agree to in a hypothetical contracting situation
- No self interest
- Has knowledge of science psychology etc
- Seeks agreement with others
- promotes their long term interests
What are the 2 fundamentals of Rawls Duty Ethics?
- Each person is entitled to the most extensive amount of liberty without restricting others
- Some may benefit more than others
What are virtue ethics?
People will do the right thing because they have developed virtuous habits - wisdom and good judgement are most important virtues.
What are some vices in virtue ethics?
Dishonesty, disloyalty, irresponsibility
What is ethical relativism?
It’s ok if it is legal or customary
What are divine command ethics?
Right actions are commanded by a deity, while wrong actions are forbidden
What is ethical egoism?
It’s all about me (we’re all driven by our own self interest)
What is ethical pluralism?
There are many different approaches and one must carefully consider which approach to take
What is ethical problem solving?
Using moral theories to help resolve ethical problems and define a course of action
What are the steps to ethical problem solving?
- Identification (recognize a state of conflict & identify source of conflict)
- Analysis (Investigation, alternatives, ranking)
- Action (deciding on and initiating course of action)
What is a normative inquiry?
Identifies values that should guide you in decision making. What are the moral issues and what behaviour would be expected?
What is a conceptual inquiry?
Clarifying the important concepts or ideas in a scenario. Defining terms and concepts
What is a factual inquiry?
Focused solely on the facts (no deeper analysis)
What are the 3 levels of moral development?
- Pre-conventional: What’s good for me? Don’t do to others if you’ll be caught or punished
- Conventional: do as others do, accept norms of society. Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you
- Post-Conventional: follow set of principles concerning rights and general good with no self interest. Do for others as you would like done for you
What level of government passed the engineering act?
Provincial
Which ministry is responsible for the Engineering Act?
Ministry of Highways
How is the Engineering Act enforced?
APEGS is self-regulated and self-administered under the act through Administrative Bylaws
What is the purpose of the engineering act?
Ensure that engineering outcomes are designed, built, created, etc by qualified and competent practitioners
What does the Act establish APEGS as?
A legal entity
What is the practice of professional engineering defined as?
Any act of planning, designing, composing, measuring, evaluating, inspecting, advising, reporting, directing or supervising, or managing any of the forgoing, that requires engineering principles and that concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public interest, or the environment.
What is the definition of geoscience?
Application of principles of geoscience including principles of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, to any act of acquiring or processing data, advising, evaluating, examining, interpreting, reporting, sampling or geo scientific surveying, that is directed towards:
Discovery of natural resources
Investigating of sub-surface geological conditions
What are exceptions to the scope of practice list in the Engineeing Act?
Supervised by P.Eng, military, architect, land surveyors, community planners, technologists, projects with value <$30k, and working on one’s own property
Can anyone call themself an engineer?
No, no person other than a P.Eng shall use the title itself or in combination with other titles to imply they are a professional engineer
How are people who use the title improperly dealt with?
First method is persuasion, if that doesn’t work then the person Amy be taken to court
What is the point of APEGS
- Ensure proficiency and competency of members to safeguard public
- Administer and enforce the act
- Promote and improve proficiency and competency of the profession
- Foster the practice of P.Eng in a manner that is in public interest
What does the council consist of?
No less than 10 elected members
No less than 4 P.Engs and 2 P.Geos
2 Public Appointees
What are regulatory bylaws?
Operational rules
Changes must be approved by minister after approval at annual meeting
Includes competency exams, issue of licenses, membership and standards of conduct
What are administrative bylaws?
Logistics
Can be approved by council
Location of office, seals, docs, financials, fees, etc
Approval by 3/4 of council
What are the types of membership?
- Annual (regular P.Engs)
- Restricted (non-Engs with specific expertise)
- Temporary (for companies doing work in the jurisdiction)
What is professional incompetence?
A lack of knowledge, skill or judgement, or
A disregard for the welfare of members of the public served by the profession
What is professional misconduct?
If an action is harmful to the best interests of the public or the members,
Tends to harm the standing of the profession,
Is a breach of the act or the bylaws
Is a failure to comply with an order of the investigation committee, the discipline committee, or the Council
What are the steps when a complaint is filed with APEGS?
- An investigation committee is struck and makes a recommendation to discipline committee
- Process of mediation is started
- Discipline committee take evidence under oath and can impose penalties
What can discipline result in?
- Expulsion
- Suspension with conditions to return
- Restrictions to practice
- Reprimand or other action
Why are laws set as a minimum?
It would be impractical to enforce or administer and allows for moral judgement
Why is the effect of laws limited?
They encourage minimal compliance and tend toward detailed regulation that harms productivity, and inevitably lag behind technology
What are codes of ethics?
Provide a framework for ethical judgement, expresses the commitment to ethical conduct shared by members of a profession, and defines the roles and responsibilities of professionals
Are codes of ethics typically higher on a moral scale then laws?
Yes
What 3 topics are typically addressed in engineering codes of ethics?
Public interest
Truth, honesty and fairness
Professional performance
What are some limitations of codes of ethics?
Conflicting statements, Need to be updated, moral disagreements, proliferation
What does safety mean
Freedom from damage, injury or risk
What is risk?
Possibility of suffering harm or loss
When is something considered safe?
When it’s risks are fully known and would be judged acceptable in terms of rational enduring and long-term principles
What is active vs passive risk taking
Active: consumers partake knowing the risks
Passive: consumers need/choose to use a product but not directly involved in decisions that affect their risk
What factors are associated with risk?
Voluntary vs involuntary
Short term vs long term consequences
Proximity
Probability
Threshold of risk
What is a safe design?
Design which complied with applicable laws and meets acceptable engineering practice
What is an important part of the design process
Safety considerations, for seeing potential misuses of product and design to avoid them
What are some failure analysis techniques?
Checklists, HAZOPs, Failure modes effects critical analysis (FMECA), fault tree
True or false: operator error and negligence are principle causes of most accidents
Accidents caused by dangerous conditions that can be corrected in design
What does liability mean for engineers?
You are liability for everything you do and design, cannot rely on codes and standards and are not protected because you are part of a large company
What is the precautionary principle?
Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of certainty can’t be used as a reason for delaying cost effective measures to prevent environmental degradation
What is a strong precaution?
Without a full understanding of adverse effects, activities must not proceed
What is weak precaution?
Without full understanding and potential for serious/irreversible damage, precautionary measures are justified
What is the Heinrich safety pyramid model
Fewer occurrences up the pyramid but more serious consequences:
Widespread fatalities, Fatality, Time Lost, Minor Injury, Near Miss, Hazard Exposure
What are some strategies to minimize incidents?
Elimination: Avoid hazard
Substitution: replace with less risk
Eng Control: Design control to remove/reduce hazard at source
Admin Control: establish rules to reduce risk
PPE
How does submission to authority affect one’s sense of accountability
Narrows the sense of accountability
What were Milgram’s experiments?
- asked to admin electric shock
- looking to see how far subjects would go
- accountability greater when in same room
Is there a tendency to blindly follow leaders?
Yes, need to stay morally autonomous to make good decisions
What are some sources of uncertainty in engineering?
Material props, measurement uncertainty, lack of measurements/data, variability in nature, Uncertainty of product usage (stresses/situations)
What are some questions to ask when introducing innovations?
What can go wrong?
How much testing is required?
What are some criteria from standards/legislation?
How can one ensure safety in their work?
- avoid blindly following standards and think through problem
- understand methodology (limits, theory, software limits, consultation with public)
- monitor performance
What is high context vs low context communication?
High: leave out ideas and let listener fill in blanks (older countries: Japan, India)
Low: simple direct and clear statements (Newer countries: Canada, Australia)
What are some issues with high to low context communication (and vice versa)?
High->Low: lacking transparency or communication skills
Low->High: Blunt, inappropriately stating obvious, condescending, patronizing
How should communication be organized with multicultural teams?
Use low context but explain why to avoid pissing off high context people
What is the difference between direct and indirect feedback?
Direct/ directly told what’s wrong, open criticism, blunt and honest, absolute descriptors
Indirect: feedback is provided softly, positive messages wrap negative (criticism sandwich), private, qualifying descriptors
How should criticism be given in a multicultural team?
If in a more direct culture, don’t do it like then (might insult others)
If criticized by more direct, accept criticism in a positive manner
What is applications-based persuasion vs principles-first pursuasion?
Applications: begin with fact, then add concepts to back up conclusions
Principles: develop theory or complex concept before presenting facts
What is egalitarian vs hierarchical leadership?
Egalitarian: all individuals equal, boss is one of the teams
Hierarchical: what boss says goes, lower employees cannot criticize boss
What is consensual vs top-down decision making?
Consensual: decisions made with unanimous agreement
Top-Down: Boss makes decisions
What is task-based vs relationship-based trust?
Trust: trust built through business related activities, professional relationships, based on quality of work
Relationship: trust built through meals drinks visits, close personal relationships, person has to know you well
